June 14, 2023
Gang tangi response overhyped
A member of the police gang harm reduction team says he’s disappointed at the way a tangi in Opotiki is being portrayed as a gang takeover of the town.
Extra police have been sent to the eastern Bay of Plenty township to deal with any situations that may arise from the presence of about 400 Mongrel Mob members for the tangi of Barbarians chapter president Steven Rota Taiatini , who was killed last Friday.
Inspector Damian White says his team had been working with Mr Taitini as part of its prevention-first approach to gang violence, and he had turned a corner.
He told Radio Waatea host Merepeka Raukawa-Tait gang members are entitled to grieve.
“Some of these men have been brought up and experienced trauma from day dot and they don’t have the same coping mechanisms we have. People say ‘look at these fellas, the way they’re mourning,’ but they haven’t been brought up like you and I. We need to stop demonising them because they are not the same as us and that’s when you get the us and them mentality and the dominant culture piece that police are trying to address,” he says.
Inspector White says police are trying not to be culturally dismissive of what it means it be in a gang, and they’re keen to work with them to find intergenerational solutions.